We absolutely love wooden toys in our house. There's just something so fresh and beautiful about them. Harlow in particular likes a wooden toy or two especially for her toy kitchen which she inherited from her brother. Along with the kitchen she received some wooden play food but it's getting a bit old now (6 years and counting) so a new addition to the kitchen was well overdue. Step forward the lovely Lucy Locket and the cute Wooden Biscuit Counting Game which they sent Harlow to try out.

Here's a little bit about Lucy Locket: "Children are right at the heart of many families and at Lucy Locket we are no different. We're the Edwick family and we currently have two generations working at our company as well as a younger generation who like to keep an eye on what we are up to. From product design, marketing, IT and safety it's all covered by our family. The great thing about this is the core values of our company reflect the values of our family through and through. The younger generation have a role to play too. Very often they are the inspiration behind new ideas. As they grow and learn we see what inspires them the most and this inspires us too. Of course the kids also love to play and test our new product ideas and we can count on them for a very honest opinion."

As you've just read, Lucy Locket are a family company through and through and provide a plethora of children's toys and products suitable for all ages and stages of development. Harlow was lucky enough to receive their wooden biscuit counting game which arrived well packaged and handily contained in a perfectly sized wooden box with sliding lid.

Inside the box there's 10 yummy traditional biscuits and a spotty tea towel to complete the set. Harlow was absolute delighted when I showed her this toy and couldn't wait to play with it. As well as encouraging imaginative play and of course adding some excitement to Harlow's beloved kitchen, the wooden biscuits are each numbered from one to ten making it a fab counting game to help practice those numbers. Being a toddler, Harlow is at the perfect age for honing her number recognition skills and I feel this toy really helped. She can say her numbers from one to ten however she won't necessarily get them in the right order. Having these biscuits to hand with the numbers printed on them helped her see the proper order they were meant to go in.

When we weren't using the biscuits as a counting game they made great pretend food for Harlow to serve with her pretend cups of tea and coffee. They really have made a great addition to her little wooden kitchen and the rest of her wooden food.

This Wooden Biscuits Counting Game can be purchased directly from the Lucy Locket website for £16.00 and if you spend over £20 you qualify for free UK delivery. I've been drooling over a few items of theirs, especially the lovely music boxes, so I can see myself putting in an order very soon!

I received the Wooden Biscuit Counting Game for free in return for an honest review.

As parents of autistic children will know, autism aids can be of great benefit to their child in the present and in the long run. Over the past few years the other half and I have learnt which aids help Logan the most and which don’t work so well. Of course we’re still learning and Logan changes as he grows older so there will always be something new to come. However I’ve put together a little list of current autism aids which seem to work for us. Hopefully they help you too.

Chewigem – for the need to chew

Chewing can help relieve anxiety in people with autism as well as acting as a calming aid or something to fidget with as a distraction. Chewigem offer a wide range of amazing chew pendants, bangles and other designs to suit all ages. Logan has a few button pendants himself which he uses every day at school. They really do help although he has to be reminded not to twirl them in the air every so often. I’m surprise how long they last as well as Logan is a heavy chewer but these have stood the test.

Sensory Lights

There's tons of different sensory lights on the market at the moment. Some of the more specialised ones can cost a fortune but you can easily pick up some good ones from places like Argos and Amazon for a fraction of the cost. Logan has this awesome laser sphere lamp which changes colour and shows cool laser patterns on his bedroom ceiling at night. He literally uses this light every night and it also makes a soothing humming/ white noise sound which actually helps him fall asleep.

Room in Room Tent
Sometimes at night time Logan can often feel scared, I'm not sure if it's because he's got an over active imagination or if it's because his large room can look a bit scary in the dark. The other half found these cool bed tents on kickstarter a little while ago so placed an order and awaited it's arrival. The idea being it would make Logan feel more secure in bed at night time. They really are awesome and Logan loves his new tent, it's helped too which is a bonus.

Sand TimerWhen Logan was younger he really struggled with moving from one activity to the next. He just couldn't finish an activity without a meltdown even if the next activity was the most amazing thing ever. So to help combat this and also stop the stress for Logan we started using sand timers. You can purchase small ones from the pound shops easily or of course a quick search online will bring up a host of different options.Hair BurshingMost children hate having their hair brushed as it can sometimes hurt but it's always been 10 times worse for Logan. He wouldn't let us use normal brushes on his hair so when AirMotion Pro sent me one of their brushes to try it was a break through! For some reason the different length of the teeth in the brush help to stop the hair being pulled when you have a tug. It's brilliant and makes hair brushing time much easier.

Ear Defenders – EDZ KidzBusy noises places and autistic children (and adults) don’t always mix well so to help ease the anxiety I often offer Logan his EDZ Kidz ear defenders to wear if he feels like it. Sometimes he will and sometimes he won’t. I’ve noticed as he’s getting older he doesn’t want to wear them as much as they make him stand out and he is becoming aware of this but they still come in handy. There's also a cool jigsaw patterned EDZ cap which you can click over the ear defenders, it's like the autism symbol to me.

So these are some of the things that really help Logan with his day to day activities. There's lots of other things out there that help as well but I'll leave them for another post. I'd love to hear what helps your child or even yourself as the adult.

As it's Autism Awareness Month it's only fitting that I should have a post on the blog regarding autism. All parents of autistic children will know that when it comes to toys and autism there are no rules. Whatever you think a child would normally do with a toy throw that idea out of the window as anything goes in the autism world.

Autistic children (and adults) do have some specific likes but with such a wide spectrum everyone is different and has their own little quirks and special abilities. Luckily for us, and of course Logan, we've been working with Toyella to investigate some fantastic toys for children on the spectrum.

Toyella have been very kind and sent Logan a few different toys to test and try out. They event wanted to include Harlow so she didn't feel left out which was so very kind of them. So first up and under investigation are the Moluk Mox sensory balls. We received two of these, one for Logan and one for Harlow. They look like simple little balls but they can be used for so many different things.

Mox are basically multi-purpose sensory balls with two eyes and a mouth. Logan was instantly drawn to the colour, pale blue, as blue is his all time favourite colour in the whole world. When he picked the ball up it fit perfectly in his hand and he described so clearly how he loved the soft texture and how smooth the Mox was. He wasn't too sure what to do with it to start with, asking me what he should do. I told him he could do whatever he wanted and pointed out that the Mox looked like it had a face. He picked up on this quickly and proceeded to make the ball talk and sing and interact with any other toys around him.

Logan really liked the Mox balls, so did his little sister, he even took them to school to try out as a fidget toy. His support worker thought they were pretty cool and a bit different but did say they only kept his attention for a little while before he moved onto the next fidget. Logan seemed to play with them more at home and did try to play with them with his sister but he kept getting a bit too excited and stealing her Mox from her.

The brilliant thing about Mox is that you can do so many things with them. Your kids can take them in the bath or use them in water tables. They help develop communication and motor skills as they're firm so require a slight squeeze to make the mouth part move. Nothing that a toddler couldn't do though so very easy for most children. They work well with marbles which you can put in the eyes and in the mouth to turn into a rattle etc. There's even a left handed company which use them to help with left handed hand writing skills which I think is brilliant. Logan hates writing and although he's not left handed I'm sure these can help him with his writing in some shape or form. I could just slot a pencil in the Mox balls mouth and away he goes.

Mox are made from food grade silicone, BPA-free, phthalate-free and latex-free and are suitable for babies to handle and mouth. I really do like them and at £4.99 per ball they don't break the bank in the slightest. You can even purchase a pack of three for £13.99 if you wish which would be handy as you can stack the balls on top of one another.

Next up for investigating is the Oogi. Logan was sent an Oogi Family and one Oogi Glow. Oogi's remind me of little stick people but instead of hands, feet and a face they have suckers. It means that they can be positioned in all manner of ways. One Oogi can connect to another and the suckers mean Oogi can be used to connect any number of different objects together. They're made from super soft elasticated silicone and are latex and phthalate free so non toxic. Logan particularly enjoyed the feeling of them against his skin since they are so soft.

In the Oogi Family pack there is two big Oogi (one red one blue) and two small Oogi (one red one blue). It's meant to represent a family and it definitely represents ours well which Logan really liked. He clicked on straight away telling me which one was his little sister, Mummy, Daddy and even himself. He then moved on swiftly to playing zombie battles with the Oogi family and making them stick to different surfaces in his room. It was lovely to see his imagination come to life. Because they are quite soft and flexible Logan liked the way they moved and would bounce them around in his hands making them dance. The arms are long which makes the dancing quite mesmerising.

The Oogi Glow is a single big Oogi figure that glows in the dark. This didn't stop Logan from playing with him during the day with the other figures but as night time would fall his excitement would mount at the thought of playing with the Oogi Glow in the dark. He loves lights and things that glow, as they all seem magical, so this was definitely a big hit for him. Even if it wasn't dark enough he would hide under his bed covers with the Oogi Glow and still see it working.

At £13.99 the Oogi Glow is fairly priced and the Oogi Family is a good bargain at £23.99 saving you £10 if you had to buy them separately. They're really great toys and so stretchy. I was worried that Logan would break his easily as he can be quite rough when it comes to his toys but we've had the Oogi for over a month now and they're still intact with no signs of any breakage.

From an autism point of view both the Mox and Oogi make great interactive fidget toys as well as stirring the imagination and helping to develop communication skills. Sometimes for Logan to understand an every day event he needs to hear a story or see pictures before hand. The Oogi are great for this type of things as you can easily role play a scene with them. For example give each one a name of the person in your family and role play what would happen when you go to an airport and fly away for your holiday. It's this type of thing that will help ease anxiety and also familiarise children with what will happen. Even better is that you can then take the Oogi to the airport with you. You can also do this for the supermarket, cinema and other events which autistic people often find challenging.

I don't think the Mox and Oogi are just for children either. I believe a lot of adults would benefit from them. I can happily see myself fidgeting with the Mox whilst I'm working at my computer desk. The soft texture and feel has a lovely calming effect and the fact that Logan had the Mox in his hands meant it stopped him from picking and hurting his own fingers.

The Mox and Oogi are both brilliant additions to any child's (and adult's) life. I'll definitely be recommending them to friends, family and support groups we attend. If you fancy some yourself then do check out the Toyellawebsite. They have so many different things to offer.